1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print management apparatus, a print management method, a computer-readable recording medium, and a computer program therefor. In particular, the invention relates to a print management apparatus, a print management method, a computer-readable recording medium, and a computer program which are suitably used for executing printing by using clear toner on the same page on which printing by using colored toner has been executed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Up to now, a method of reconstructing jobs by selecting an arbitrary page from all jobs developed into printable data and performing the printing has been proposed.
This technology is aimed to avoid duplicate saving of common pages between the jobs when data is read from the saved job to perform printing. To be more specific, this technology can be applied to a use in which a Web page is developed and a layout of a plurality of pages is made on one sheet for performing printing, or a use in which a job is generated by gathering only desired pages for performing printing (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-174956).
Incidentally, a method of increasing added values while a part of a document is printed by using clear toner (i.e., transparent toner) to provide gloss to a printed manner has been proposed.
However, in a normal printing method, the following issues may occur when printing is performed by using the clear toner.
Air Bubbles
If clear toner is placed on a sheet still retaining heat, air bubbles or cracks may be generated on an image.
Restriction on Toner Bearing Amount
As an upper limit exists for a toner bearing amount through one performance, if the toner is borne up to the maximum toner bearing amount in CMYK printing (i.e., printing by using colored toner), the clear toner may not be able to be borne any more.
As a measure for addressing the above-described issues, a two-path method is proposed for performing a printing process as follows. That is, all the pages are printed by using the colored toner once. Then, after the printed product obtained by performing the printing is cooled down (e.g., after a printed product resting time elapses), printing by using the clear toner is performed.
However, according to this method, a user may typically need to set the printed product again in the printer. For this reason, when a large amount of sheets are printed, an enormous amount of sheets may need to be set in the printer again, and the operational loads can become large. Also, a method has been proposed where a page to be printed by using the clear toner is taken out by an operator, and only the relevant part is printed by using the clear toner. However, with such a method, it may be necessary to perform post processing such as page merge processing, and thus the operability may be compromised.
In addition, according to the above-mentioned method, it may be necessary to provide a time for cooling the printed product down. However, in a case where the time for the cooling down is not sufficient, air bubbles or cracks may be generated on the printed product, and a desired printed product may not be obtained in some cases. For this reason, the operator may need to precisely grasp the time for cooling the printed product down.